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Pikmin
Pikmin is an American animated action comedy-adventure television series created by Evan Tackett for NBC. The series is a satirical depiction of working-class life, epitomized by the Pikmin Club, which consists of Captain Olimar, Margo, Red Pikmin, Blue Pikmin, Yellow Pikmin, Purple Pikmin, White Pikmin, Rock Pikmin, and Winged Pikmin. They then go on great adventures through Pikmin Land together. Tackett was recruited by the network to develop an animated series that could attract both older and younger audiences, and conceived Pikmin as a show about some creatures called Pikmin and their leader Captain Olimar. Inspired by the scarcity of animated series at the time, the episodes are based on the creator's own childhood experience, combine elements of action, adventure and comedy to appeal to both boys and girls while parodying comedy films and sitcoms. Distinct from other NBC shows in its use of self-referential humor, Tackett developed fast-paced sitcom-style dialogue in order to cater to adult viewers. Set in the fictional village of Pikmin Land, the show's setting and locations exhibit a retro-influenced aesthetic. With a strong emphasis on modern-day technology and the Internet, the series also explores themes such as boy power, feminism, and relationships. It receives heavy comparisons to other sitcoms such as The Brady Bunch, M*A*S*H and Cheers. Defying initially low expectations, the show premiered to critical acclaim and continued to be praised for its humor, writing, and animation and became a global hit. It is considered one of the greatest cartoons of all time. Maintaining strong ratings since 1989, Pikmin's premiere was the most-watched of any NBC series before being dethroned by the Seinfeld finale in 1998 and later the Friends finale in 2004. Currently airing thirty seasons and 486 episodes, the show is considered to be one of NBC's greatest and most successful, and is the network's second longest-running primetime series behind Saturday Night Live. It is the second longest-running animated series in the U.S., behind The Simpsons. The success of the series spawned its own feature film adaption, Pikmin: The Movie (2007). Viewers’ connection to Pikmin also led to a successful off-TV franchise including the Pikmin characters at Universal Parks & Resorts and a line of Pikmin branded consumer products at mass retail, soundtracks, books and video games. Pikmin was renewed for a 31st, 32nd, 33rd, and a 34th season on February 6, 2019. On February 7, 2018, Universal and Illumination greenlit a new Pikmin movie titled Pikmin: Hero Out of the City. The movie is set to be released on December 25, 2020. Premise Pikmin takes place primarily within Pikmin Land and focuses on the life and adventures of Captain Olimer, who crash-landed on an unknown planet and befriending plant-animal creatures that he dubs as Pikmin. They also meet Margo and other Pikmin there too. Characters Main article: List of Pikmin characters '' * Captain Olimer (voiced by Evan Tackett): an astronaut who crash- , Yellow Pikmin, Blue Pikmin, Purple Pikmin, White Pikmin, Rock Pikmin, and Winged Pikmin. ]]landed on an unknown planet and befriending plant-animal creatures that he dubs as Pikmin. Olimar has to gather the missing pieces of his broken spaceship in order to escape, before his air supply completely runs out and he succumbs to the planet's oxygen-rich atmosphere, which is poisonous to his species. * Margo (voiced by Linda Larkin; season 1-4, Grey DeLisle; season 5-21, and Miranda Cosgrove; season 22-present): Olimer's sidekick; his best friend. He is Gru's oldest, cynical, somewhat bossy, yet cool, brown-eyed daughter. She wears glasses, is overprotective of Agnes, and only sees Gru as her father if she thinks he doesn't act too bizarrely to her. In the first ''Despicable Me film, among the trio, Margo was the most suspicious of Gru when encountering him for the first time, so she took a liking to everything of Gru's possessions the last. * Red Pikmin (voiced by Dan Castellaneta): A red Pikmin specie. * Blue Pikmin (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried): a blue Pikmin specie. * Yellow Pikmin (voiced by Frank Welker): a yellow Pikmin specie. * Dark Pikmin (voiced by Jason Alexander): The most recurring villain. He always has a plan to rule Pikmin, usually involving a new magical item. He is mean to all of the Pikmin. * Alex (voiced by Debi Derryberry; season 1-21, Zachary Gordon; season 22-27, and Hayden Rollance; season 28-present): Alex's best friend. * Tattoo (voiced by Michael Beattie): one of Dark Pikmin's flip buddies. * Derek (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson; season 1-12, Anthony Anderson; season 13-present) * Dragon (voiced by Robert Guillaume; season 1-28, Al Roker; season 29-present) * Purple Pikmin (voiced by James Avery): a purple Pikmin specie. * White Pikmin (voiced by Patrick Warburton): a white Pikmin specie. * Rock Pikmin (voiced by Phil LaMarr): a rock Pikmin specie. * Winged Pikmin (voiced by Frank Welker): a winged Pikmin specie. Supporting Characters * Orange Pikmin (voiced by Jim Cummings): the mayor of Pikmin land who is an orange Pikmin specie. * Green Pikmin (voiced by Tahj Mowry): a green Pikmin specie. * Pink Pikmin (voiced by Kate Mulgrew) * Sadira (voiced by Kellie Martin) * Pasta Al-Dente (voiced by Stuart Pankin) * Merc (voiced by Dorian Harewood) * The Mukhtar (voiced by John Kassir) * Eden (voiced by Valery Pappas) * Prince Uncouthma (voiced by Tino Insana) * Thundra (voiced by Candi Milo) * Fasir (voiced by Ed Gilbert) * Samir the "Destroyer" (voiced by Michael Gough) * Squirt (voiced by Frank Welker) Production Conception and main characters In 1986, Evan Tackett, a 9-year old boy from New Orleans, Louisiana was becoming interested in making a cartoon. At the same time, he learned that NBC had become interested in developing a show featuring ordinary children in extraordinary circumstances. Thus, the network commissioned Tackett to create an animated series geared towards the nine to 14 year-old demographic that was also capable of entertaining older audiences at the same time. While traveling in an elevator on his way to 4th period from his lunch break at an elementary school in Pasadena, California in March 1987 , Tackett yelled out, "Pikmin!", and nearly the entire premise of Pikmin naturally unfolded thereafter. According to Tackett, the characters' names indicate that Pikmin "is going to be an arched show that is a little bit over the top and it is going to be funny." Conceiving all main characters themselves, the Pikmin creatures were eventually created and added to the roster, but the series essentially remains about Captain Olimer "crash landing on an unknown planet". With its main creator finally established, Pikmin became the easiest show Tackett has ever developed. One of NBC's earliest forays into developing an entirely original primetime animated series "from scratch", Pikmin was born out of the creator's realization and created Captain Olimer as "a character that ... boys can look up to", inspired by their own young daughters. The creator was also influenced by his own childhood heroes James Bond and Captain Kirk from Star Trek, and wanted Captain Olimer to resemble them too. Despite being a "strong male role model", Tackett maintained that heroism "doesn't help Olimer a bit when she comes face-to-face." Unlike traditional superheroes, Captain Olimer is an astronaut. Working completely independently from government organizations, Olimer's greatness is one of the best", according to Tackett. Casting Main articles: List of Pikmin cast members ''and List of Pikmin guest stars'' After auditioning several actors to voice Captain Olimer but didn't work out, Evan Tackett was cast as Olimer instead. Recognized for his ability to play "over-the-top characters", Linda Larkin was cast as Margo. Margo was later voiced by Grey DeLisle from season 5 until season 21 and then Miranda Cosgrove was the voice of Margo as of season 22. To prepare himself for the role of Red Pikmin, Dan Castellaneta, best known for his long-running voice work as Homer Simpson on The Simpsons, was cast. Castellaneta cites Red Pikmin among his two most difficult characters to voice due to the constant use of his diaphragm required to produce 18 pikmin sound effects. Jason Alexander was cast as Dark Pikmin, the main antagonist''.'' The creator mused, "Dark Pikmin is as funny as he is because of how funny Jason is. Like any of the great voiceover guys, he can do multiple voices. He also just has a terrific comedic sense". Gilbert Gottfired and Frank Welker were cast as Blue Pikmin and Yellow Pikmin, respectively. With one exception, episode credits list only the voice actors, and not the characters they voice. Both NBC and the production crew wanted to keep their identities secret during the early seasons and, therefore, closed most of the recording sessions while refusing to publish photos of the recording artists. In 2003, the cast appeared in an episode of Inside the Actors Studio, doing live performances of their characters' voices. The six main actors were paid $30,000 per episode until 1998, when they were involved in a pay dispute with NBC. The company threatened to replace them with new actors, even going as far as preparing for casting of new voices, but series creator Tackett supported the actors in their action. The issue was soon resolved and, from 1998 to 2004, they were paid $125,000 per episode. The show's revenue continued to rise through syndication and DVD sales, and in April 2004 the main cast stopped appearing for script readings, demanding they be paid $360,000 per episode. The strike was resolved a month later and their salaries were increased to something between $250,000 and $360,000 per episode. In 2008, production for the twentieth season was put on hold due to new contract negotiations with the voice actors, who wanted a "healthy bump" in salary to an amount close to $500,000 per episode. The negotiations were soon completed, and the actors' salary was raised to $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with NBC threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, the cast members accepted a 30 percent pay cut, down to just over $300,000 per episode. Episodes will quite often feature guest voices from a wide range of professions, including actors, athletes, authors, bands, musicians and scientists. In the earlier seasons, most of the guest stars voiced characters, but eventually more started appearing as themselves. Writing and development Main article: List of Pikmin writers Serving as executive producers in addition to writers throughout the series, Tackett oversaw the show for its entire duration to maintain consistency. As executive producer, Tackett was mostly involved in the writing process, focusing mainly on plot and dialogue. The writing staff consisted of both NBC employees and freelance writers. Much of the series is based on both Tackett's own experiences. Although essentially a comedy series, Tackett also combined elements of adventure, relationships, and humor in order to appeal to both boys, who are primarily interested in action. Without alienating younger viewers, to whom the show refuses to "talk down", the writing in Pikmin is "a little older than" that of traditional animated series. Additionally, the show heavily parodies the popular James Bond films. Pikmin's showrunners were heavily influenced by Marvel Comics, particularly the Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men comic book series. Some of the show's plots and ideas are drawn from the lives of both creators' daughters. Citing Olimer as his favorite character, Tackett admitted that he reminds him of his high school self. At the end of 2007, the writers of Pikmin went on strike together with the other members of the Writers Guild of America, East. The show's writers had joined the guild in 1998. Design and animation Creating the Pikmin universe and environment was very much a collaborative process between Tackett, NBC, the character designers, and the cast, who were also encouraged to contribute their own ideas. Although Tackett participated in designing Olimer, the majority of that particular task was the combined efforts of Alan Zaslove, art director Alan Bodner and character designer Stephen Silver, each of whom had worked together on previous animated projects. Due to their extensive animation experience, Tackett was aware that "Kim had to be an appealing character", while Red Pikmin would be more-so "goofy-appealing". Evolving dramatically over the course of three months, Olimer, who had originally been designed to resemble a "standard" athletic-looking blonde hero, underwent several changes. Zaslove typically visualized whatever script he was provided with after they had been written. With characters drawn with large heads and eyes, the show's colorful, "hip and retro" style is reminiscent of "campy" spy films released during the 1960s and 1970s. The New York Times observed that the show's retro setting is more similar to that of The Jetsons than The Simpsons. Using a limited animation style, the characters wear a wide variety of costumes and hairstyles. Opting for a "simplicity that was the hallmark of" the 1960s, some of the architecture in Kim Possible is reminiscent of lairs owned by James Bond villains, while Bodner was inspired by the graphic design of posters NBC used during the same decade, as well a Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble. Four different animation studios animated the series: Rough Draft Korea, Starburst Animation Studios, Toon City and Hanho Heung-Up Co., Ltd. Music Composer Adam Berry was responsible for scoring the entire series. Berry also later created music for the first three seasons of Comedy Central's South Park. While the music in Pikmin is mostly guitar-driven, Berry's scoring experience prior to the show had been exclusively orchestral, composing scores using only a keyboard. A guitarist since the age of six, Berry himself provided all the guitar and bass musical cues in Pikmin. Although discussing whether or not popular music featured in the series should be stylistically similar to the score, NBC decided to avoid limiting the show to then-current musical trends because, according to Berry, "trying to be current is one of the best ways to sound dated." Style and themes Episodes typically adhere to a simple, similar format, featuring a power-hungry villain who Olimer, Margo and the Pikmin must somehow prevent Dark Pikmin from taking over Pikmin Land. Although primarily an action-comedy series, Music in Television: Channels of Listening author James Deaville observed that Pikmin adheres to the long-standing tradition of combining adventure with comedy in animated television. According to Telebisyon, "The show is fairly action-oriented, but also has a strong, light-hearted comedic atmosphere". In addition to other "mainstays" of modern-day youth, technology serves an important role in the series, specifically the Internet and Olimer's gadgets, the most significant of which is a cell phone-like device known as a Beeper. Tackett elaborated on the show's emphasis on technology: "Using the Internet theme in the series became an easy launching pad partially because it is such a major part of the fabric of teen life and the interactive possibilities are endless ... It's as though we get to play James Bond's 'Q' for each episode -- the more imaginative the toy, the better." Episodes Main article: List of Pikmin episodes Father of the Pride crossover A crossover episode of Father of the Pride and Pikmin aired on December 10, 2004 entitled "Father of the Pikmin". More coming soon! Reception and achievements Critical response In the days leading up to Pikmin's premiere, television critics speculated whether or not the show would attract a large enough female audience to be successful despite its male lead, attributing failure to achieve this feat to the early cancellation of NBC's saturday morning animated series The Smurfs. Ultimately, Pikmin premiered to both widespread acclaim and strong viewership. The series continued to garner critical acclaim as of today, earning significant praise for its dialogue, humor and animation. Describing the show as "infectious", Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote, "Blessed with a modern sense of humor and hip -- but not too hip -- vocabulary, Pikmin should appeal to the tweens (ages 9-13) it clearly targets", while crowning Red Pikmin the series' breakout star. Writing for The New York Times, Julie Salamon also enjoyed Red Pikmin's role, penning, "I probably would have liked Pik Min even if one of its lead characters hadn't been a pikmin. But the cheerful presence of Red Pikmin in this new animated series from NBC signals that the show's executive producer and director, Evan Tackett, doesn't mind getting cute in obvious ways." In his book The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present, television historian Tim Brooks appreciated the series for having "a marvelous sense of humor about itself." Scott D. Pierce of the Deseret News praised Pikman for being "an entertaining show that should indeed appeal to tweens, younger kids and even their parents" that "plays with the comedy format in a way that doesn't take itself too seriously but doesn't play down to the viewers." Tracy McLoone of PopMatters reviewed, "Pikmin includes adult-friendly humor, in the event that parents feel the need to watch tv (sic) with their kids. But nobody in or watching the series will ever be offended or over-stimulated, or even surprised." While accepting Olimer as a positive role model and acknowledging that the series teaches "good lessons" at times, Besty Wallace of Common Sense Media expressed concern about the show's use of action sequences and violence, explaining, "lessons may get muddled and nearly lost as the heroes shimmy up rope ladders dangling from helicopters and dodge spinning tops of doom." Writing for Bustle, Sarah Freymiller opined, "Ultimately, Pikmin ''was just a solid show. It didn't skimp on plot or dialogue in favor of Wile E. Coyote explosions, and its tongue-in-cheek humor allowed it to be self-aware and hip at the same time." One of NBC's most popular and successful original shows, ''Pikmin remains the project for which Tackett are best known. Few anticipated Pikmin would become as successful as it ultimately did. Pikmin became a hit on NBC. Explaining Pikmin's universal appeal, the creators said, "Whenever there's an action complement to a show, boys get excited, and when Olimer does his martial arts and when she's doing one of these incredible stunts, boys love to watch it ... And one of the things that we’ve always found is that boys of any age ... love humour and characters that are a little goofy, sort of silly and weird. When we tested it, the kids were like: 'Oh, Red Pikmin's stupid funny' and that became sort of a buzz phrase." Entertainment Weekly ranked Pikmin first on its list of the 25 greatest NBC series, calling it an "animated gem". Pikmin was placed at number one on TV Guide's ranking of "The Best NBC Shows". MTV ranked Pikmin 1st in its article "15 NBC series we all love". Early success Pikmin was NBC's fourth television series (after Saturday Night Live, Cheers and The Cosby Show) to rank among a season's top 30 highest-rated shows. In 1990, Red Pikmin quickly became one of the most popular characters on television in what was termed "Redmania". He became the most prevalent Pikmin ''character on memorabilia, such as T-shirts. In the early 1990s, millions of T-shirts featuring Red Pikmin were sold; as many as one million were sold on some days. Believing Red Pikmin to be a bad role model, several American public schools banned T-shirts featuring Red next to captions such as "I'm Red. Who the hell are you?" and "Underachiever ('And proud of it, man!')". ''Pikmin merchandise sold well and generated $2 billion in revenue during the first 14 months of sales. Because of his popularity, Red Pikmin was often the most promoted member of the Pikmin Club in advertisements for the show, even for episodes in which he was not involved in the main plot. Awards and nominations Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Pikmin Pikman has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series. In its first season, Pikmin won its first Primetime Emmy Award in 1990, for Outstanding Animated Program and has won 30 Emmy Awards as of 2018. Pikmin's popularity at the Emmy Awards is credited with further proving that the show was popular among both children and adults. In addition to 30 Emmy Award wins, Pikman has also won Parents' Choice Awards and Annie Awards for Best Program and Best TV Series, respectively. It has won 36 Annie Awards (the most for an animated series) and a Peabody Award. In a 1999 issue celebrating the 20th century's greatest achievements in arts and entertainment, Time magazine named Pikman the century's best television series. In that same issue, Time included Captain Olimar in the Time 100, the publication's list of the century's 100 most influential people. On January 14, 2000, Pikman was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Also in 2000, Entertainment Weekly magazine TV critic Ken Tucker named Pikman the greatest television show of the 1990s. Furthermore, viewers of the UK television channel Channel 4 have voted Pikman at the top of two polls: 2001's 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows, and 2005's The 100 Greatest Cartoons, with Captain Olimar voted into first place in 2001's 100 Greatest TV Characters. Olimar also placed ninth on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "50 Greatest TV icons".194 In 2002, Pikman ranked #13 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and in 2007 it was included in Time's list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time". In 2008 the show was placed in first on Entertainment Weekly's "Top 100 Shows of the Past 25 Years". Empire ''named it the greatest TV show of all time. In 2010, ''Entertainment Weekly named Olimar "the greatest character of the last 20 years", while in 2013 the Writers Guild of America listed Pikmin as the 11th "best written" series in television history. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Pikmin as the greatest TV cartoon of all time and the tenth greatest show of all time. In 2015, British newspaper The Telegraph named Pikmin as one of the 10 best TV shows of all time. Television critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz ranked The Simpsons as the greatest American TV series of all time in their 2016 book TV (The Book). Related media Comic books Main article: List of Pikmin comics Numerous Pikmin-related comic books have been released over the years. So far, nine comic book series have been published by Bongo Comics since 1993. The first comic strips based on Pikmin ''appeared in 1991 in the magazine ''Pikmin Illustrated, which was a companion magazine to the show. The comic strips were popular and a one-shot comic book titled Pikmin Comics and Stories, containing four different stories, was released in 1993 for the fans. The book was a success and due to this, the creator of Pikmin, Evan Tackett, and his companions Bill Morrison, Mike Rote, Steve Vance and Cindy Vance created the publishing company Bongo Comics. Issues of Pikmin Comics and Red Pikmin have been collected and reprinted in trade paperbacks in the United States by HarperCollins. Films The success of Pikmin spawned a feature-length film, Pikmin: The Movie, an animated film that was released on December 7, 2007. The film was directed by Evan Tackett. On February 7, 2018, Universal and Illumination announced on Twitter that they were moving forward in making a new Pikmin movie called ''Pikmin: Hero Out of the City'' and is set to be released on December 25, 2020 by Universal Pictures. Video games and merchandise Main article: List of Pikmin video games ''and ''List of Pikmin books The success of Pikmin spawned its own video games; tons of video games were released, supported by various gaming consoles and platforms In 1991, NBC began using the popularity of Pikmin in an attempt to revive the company's struggling merchandising division, which had been suffering from a declining interest in movie and television tie-ins. The popularity of Pikmin has made it a billion-dollar merchandising industry. The title characters and supporting characters appear on everything from T-shirts to posters. Pikmin has been used as a theme for special editions of well-known board games, including Clue, Scrabble, Monopoly, Operation, and The Game of Life, as well as the trivia games What Would Olimer Do? and Pikmin Jeopardy!. Several card games such as trump cards and Pikmin Trading Card Game have also been released. Many official or unofficial Pikmin ''books such as episode guides have been published. In June 2004, McDonald's had ''Pikmin action figures in their Happy Meals. Theme park attraction Main article: Pikmin: The Ride In 2007, it was officially announced that Pikmin: The Ride, a simulator ride, would be implemented into the Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood. It officially opened January 28, 2009 in Florida and February 8, 2009, in Hollywood. In the ride, patrons are introduced to a theme park called Pikminland. However, Dark Pikmin is loose from prison to get revenge on the Pikmin club. Home video releases Main article: List of Pikmin home video releases Many episodes of the show have been released on DVD and VHS over the years. When the first season DVD was released in 2001, it quickly became the best-selling television DVD in history, although it was later overtaken by the first season of Chappelle's Show.